ELORA – The Elora BIA’s board of management has been scrapped and senior township staff will take it over until an annual general meeting can be called and a new board elected.
Council made the decision at its June 16 meeting.
Apparently both the Elora and Fergus BIAs have been operating for the last decade out of compliance with a 1992 Centre Wellington bylaw that establishes its composition.
The bylaw states a maximum of four members can sit on the board, one of whom must be a township councillor.
But in fact there have been as many as nine members on the board of Elora’s BIA, council heard from a number of delegates.
Business Improvement Areas (BIAs) were created in the 1970s by provincial legislation.
They allow local businesses, commercial property owners and tenants to join together with a municipality to organize, finance and carry out physical improvements and promote economic development in their district.
All businesses in a BIA district automatically become BIA members and must pay a levy as well as property taxes.
BIAs also act as a voice for the business community and often work with community groups, councils and municipalities to promote initiatives or solve problems.
The broader membership votes for the individuals who sit on the board of management.
Current board chair Erika Montero spoke as a delegate before council made its decision.
She said when she took over the role in December, she noted the membership was out of compliance with the bylaw and alerted township staff.
She said the board has been working on updating the bylaw to allow for more business owners to sit on the board.
“We did not create this situation, we inherited it,” she said. “And now having worked to correct it we are being punished for it.”
Business owners and board members Cathy Daultrey, Cathi Bastien and Kathy Sullivan, and local resident Darcy Saunders echoed Montero’s concerns and urged council to update the bylaw to allow for more board members, rather than shut down the board.
Bastien said Elora has grown since 1992 “and the governance structure doesn’t represent the village. I feel this is punitive.”
Sullivan said council could take the less severe action to vote to remove two members and bring the board into compliance.
In the absence of that, “this is no longer about compliance but control, optics and politics,” she said.
CAO Dan Wilson acknowledged the township made an error in allowing more members than the bylaw allows.
In an effort to rectify the situation, and on the advice of legal counsel, he recommended rescinding the board, and appointing an interim board of management until an annual general meeting of the BIA can be called and new elections take place.
The township will then work with the new board to update the bylaw.
The township will also host workshops for the new board to understand its legal obligations.
Wilson said dissolving the board does not preclude any board member from running again.
And once the Elora BIA is brought into compliance, the township will work with the Fergus BIA on the same issues.
“Our intent is to (resolve) Elora first and learn from best practice,” Wilson said.
Wilson’s report recommended that he, clerk Kerri O’Kane, treasurer Adam McNabb and councillor Kim Jefferson be appointed as board members.
Councillor Jennifer Adams said that since Jefferson was on the previous board and it is being dissolved, Mayor Shawn Watters should be the fourth member.
In a recorded vote, only Adams voted against the motion. Councillor Bronwynne Wilton voted to abstain, which also counts as a vote against, but the motion passed.
Wilson said he hopes to arrange an AGM in early July.
